Hiding Out and Cutting In
by maggienhawk
Summary: Response to challenge at Unbound. He had let the words that one person uttered in mere seconds ruin his and her lives for the past ten years. GSR


**Title: Hiding Out and Cutting In **

**Author: Maggienhawk**

**Disclaimer: Not mine…because if they were, they would act like this and my best friend would actually watch the show.**

**Summary: Response to challenge at Unbound. He had let the words that one person uttered in mere seconds ruin his and her lives for the past ten years.**

**A/N: I know it's late…but only by two days! I had the idea brewing in my head for awhile, and coincidentally last week's lines gave me something to work from. This would be why it is well over the 1000 word limit.**

**A/N 2: BTW…It was Supposed to be My Shift has been set on the way back burner. It's nice to know that people want to read more, but my muse just hasn't been with me on that story. I, however, have been working on a longer fic, but it's still in the early stages. Thanks to Jo for giving me some kind words for this fic…and for telling me it is okay not to be writing. :-) **

Grissom remembered warm summer nights in Boston, and wine in yellow plastic cups. He had been hiding from another life, one that had taken place only months before in Las Vegas. Catherine referred to that life once, unknowingly, as the time he was "burned bad." And burned he had been. There was nothing like having your fiancé run off with another man to make you want to run and hide, especially when you are Gil Grissom. So when he had received an invitation to teach a summer forensics seminar at Harvard, one that he had received and declined every year for the past three or four, he accepted, deciding that he needed to get away from Sin City before it did more damage to his fragile being.

He expected to be able to immerse himself in science, teaching graduate and advance undergraduates the basics of forensic science. He had always loved Boston, and was excited to spend days just wandering the streets, taking in the historical feel to the large city that was so much more different than where he was residing now.

What he didn't expect was to meet a beautiful young woman who would challenge his mind in many ways. A graduate student he would walk the streets of Boston with. One he would fall in love with.

Love hadn't been part of the plan, but looking back it had been the best thing that could have happened at the time. It helped him move on.

They met when his colleague, the one who invited him to Boston, was giving him a tour of one of the many science labs on campus. After a brief conversation right there in the middle of the physics lab, she was so enthralled with his knowledge and his passion for his chosen field that she invited him for coffee to continue the conversation after she was finished teaching her undergraduate Intro to Physics lab that afternoon.

Over many other coffee breaks he learned she was from San Francisco, going to school on the east coast to get away from her awkward childhood. She was a science geek at heart, always excited to learn something new. When asked why she chose physics, she claimed it was because it encompassed all of the other sciences. "If it weren't for physics, there would be nothing, not even forensics." She was the most beautiful person, both inside and out, that he had ever met.

When she asked if she could attend his seminar, saying that it was because she was really interested in forensics now that she had met him, he agreed, even though the seminar was fully enrolled. She would sit in the back, holding any questions until the end so as not to detract the experience from the students who were actually paying to take the class. They would go for coffee afterwards, discussing the lecture that day, and then digressing into unimportant topics.

She had this amazing ability to get him to talk about himself, and he told her the real reason he was in Boston. To his surprise, she figured that he was running from something, but hadn't put her finger on what it was.

Coffee evolved into dinner at his apartment, and afterwards they would sit on his balcony, overlooking the Boston skyline at sunset, drinking wine from the yellow plastic cups. One night, she asked about the cups and he claimed it was because there was no point in buying wine glasses when he was only going to be here for a small amount of time. It was then that she kissed him for the first time.

Pulling back from that first kiss, he remembered, was one of the most wonderfully painful moments of his life. To ease the pain, he stood quickly, pulling her up to a standing position as well and captured her lips as they stumbled into the bedroom.

He smiled lightly as he remembered waking up with her, morning after morning for those few months. Looking across the room and spotting her, his smile turned into a frown. It was a night like this that they had said their goodbyes that summer. All dolled up for some politic banquet, and if they didn't show, it would reflect poorly on the department.

She was being honored at an academic banquet, the youngest graduate student ever to be invited to. He had decided to take a month long vacation after the seminar ended, thus extending his stay in Boston until October, and allowing him to escort her to the mid-September banquet. They heard the whispers of the other professors and students, but ignored them knowing nothing could happen to them. She had never officially been his student, just an over-enthusiastic physics student who took the time to sit in on his seminar. While they danced, her head rested on his shoulder, and he could smell the perfume he had bought for her one lazy afternoon as they were strolling through Quincy Market.

The moment had been ruined when she pulled away slightly and turned away from him. A familiar voice asked her, "May I cut in?" and he pulled away from her startled by the voice and stared at the other woman. His ex-fiancé was standing not even three feet from the love of his life. The latter nodded slightly, shooting a confused look at him as she walked away.

It turned out that the man that his ex-fiancé had run off with was a graduate of Harvard, and many alumni were always invited to this banquet every year. They danced, but the closeness on his part was forced, just trying to get through the song so that he could run off and hide again in the arms of a brunette beauty.

She spent the song talking about hearing rumors of a professor and a student being together outside of class and how dirty and disgusting it was for such an older man to be manipulating a young woman like that.

He pulled away quickly and walked off the dance floor. Instead of staying in the banquet hall, he decided he needed fresh air. Surprisingly, he wasn't the only one. He found her sitting on a bench with her head in her hands. He sat down next to her and grabbed her hand tenderly. Thinking back now, he realized he repeated that exact action years later, and under very different circumstances.

He decided in that moment that he would let her go. Let her find someone her own age that could give her a lifetime of love. He was going back to Vegas the next morning. He told her that he was lucky enough to have found her here, and that he would never forget this summer. "I love you, Sara, but it has to end."

For years, she would think that he went back to be with his former fiancé. And although they kept in constant contact over the years, it wasn't until he called her to Vegas four years ago that she found out he was still single and had been for the past six years.

One week ago, he walked into the break room before assignments and announced that the entire night shift had been recognized nationally for having one of the top solve rates in such a large city. The sheriff was going to be holding a black-tie affair in their honor.

She was wearing the same dress that she wore ten years ago. He was having a hard time watching her dance with the others. Nick danced with her like a brother would, Warrick like a best friend would, and Greg, well Greg danced more around her than with her.

Completely engrossed in watching her interactions with the others, he was startled when he heard Jim next to him. "She looks stunning this evening, doesn't she?"

"Yes, yes she does."

Jim looked over at the melancholic tone he had used. "You know, you are the only one she hasn't danced with tonight. Why don't you go take that chance, Gil?"

He stared at the police captain for a few, long moments. Ten years ago, someone discouraged him from ever dancing with her again, and here, one of his best friends was telling him to go for it. He glanced over to watch her dance again with Warrick, and it was then that he realized he had been so wrong all these years.

The love he felt for her was not dirty and disgusting, as his ex-fiancé had put it. He had let the words that one person uttered in mere seconds ruin his and her lives for the past ten years. He looked back over at Jim – who knew he had just watched as his friend had an epiphany – and nodded as he walked towards the dance floor.

He tapped Warrick on the left should and asked if he could cut in. Warrick gave him a confused glance, and she was stunned. "Sure, boss," was said by Warrick as he guided her into his arms.

Finally having her in his arms after all those years was like having a dream come true. Her eyes bore into his, asking silently why he was dancing with her. As an answer to her question or just as a compliment – neither would ever know which it truly was – he whispered, "You look beautiful in that dress."

A smile, the smile that he hadn't seen in months, graced her face. "The last time I wore it was that night in Boston. There was no point in buying a new dress because this one still fit me." She paused for a moment, and her smile softened to an embarrassed grin. "No one has ever seen me in it, except you."

The rest of the dance was silent. They started out at a safe distance from one another, but the effort was futile and as her head rested on his shoulder, he sighed lightly. 'If only this moment could last forever,' he thought. His thoughts, however, were interrupted when she pulled away much like she did all those years ago on the dance floor. Only this time, it was Catherine wanting a dance.

She smiled and pulled away, eyes locked with his as she backed away. When she turned to walk off the dance floor, he was caught in the knowing glance of his new dance partner. "You were dancing pretty close to Sara there. Is there something I don't know about you two?"

He smiled, not answering the question, and they continued their dance. As the song came to an end, he did answer her question, "That's just the way Sara and I have always danced." At the look of surprise on his friend's face, he continued with a small smirk on his face, "There's a lot you don't know about her and me," and he walked off the dance floor in search of her.

He found her talking with Nick and Warrick, a glass of wine in her hand. Stepping up behind her, slightly to her left, he whispered in her ear that he wanted to talk with her privately. She smiled with her eyes as she nodded, and excused herself from the guys.

They wandered around outside silently, until they found a bench to sit on. For the first time since they had split up in Boston, he started the talking, and continued talking. He told her the reasons why he had left so abruptly, that he had been discouraged by what people thought of him, courting such a young woman. And then he apologized for everything that had happened since she moved to Vegas: the mixed signals, the unnecessary rejection and the fact that he was trying to lie to himself.

She looked at him, confused by the last apology, and he knew he had to explain himself. "I've been trying to tell myself that I don't love you, Sara, but it's a lie. It always has been and always will be."

He pulled her into his arms as the tears streamed down her face, and peppered the top of her head with light kisses. An unknown amount of time passed, and then she pulled back and kissed him much like she had their first kiss, on his balcony, over yellow plastic cups.

A few weeks later, they shared their first night off together. When she arrived at his apartment, she was carrying a large paper bag, but set it on the floor just inside the door. It was forgotten until he offered her some wine.

"I bought you a present," she smiled as she walked back over to the bag.

He retuned her smile. "I was wondering what was in it."

"Always the investigator." Her smile grew as she watched him nod. She carried the bag to his kitchen counter. "I thought that these might come in handy sometime."

He laughed as he opened the bag and unwrapped the two bubble-wrapped packages inside. He set the two crystal wine glasses on the counter, and admired the intricate engraving on each. Pulling her to him, he captured her lips in a sweet kiss.

Once they separated, he chuckled lightly and he walked over to a cupboard while she poured the wine into the new glasses. "And here I bought these especially for this occasion."

She smiled as she looked up and saw him holding a bag of yellow plastic cups. "Ewww!"


End file.
